Thursday, March 1, 2012

When people make breakfast at home that includes some kind of potato side dish, they almost always go with homefries over hash browns. I’m not sure of exactly why, but I think people assume that hash browns are somehow more difficult, which is simply not the case.

Grating a couple potatoes is not that much harder than cubing them up, and the cooking process is almost identical. If anything, hash browns cook faster than homefries, and in this chef’s opinion are the superior breakfast potatoes. They are crisper, more interesting, and absorb runny egg yolk like homefries can only dream about.

One thing to note when you look at the ingredients below: this is a scalable recipe, with one medium-sized russet potato portioned per person. If you're going to make this for a larger group, you’ll want to use several pans, as you need enough room to get the proper crustification.

Speaking of russets, the potato variety is much more important here than with homefries. Just about any potato will work for those, but for hash browns you need the starchy texture of the russet, as opposed to the waxier texture of red potatoes. By the way, Yukon gold also works okay, but russet is the best.

Anyway, the next time your cooking a proper breakfast at home, I hope you give these “other” breakfast potatoes a try. Enjoy!

im curious, given the ketchup/europeans comment, do you have brown sauce in the states? its sort of like ketchup with molasses and other stuff in there, i think it makes for a far superior breakfast condiment. im from scotland by the way

Thanks for the great video, I prefer mine the same way as yours (except with syrup instead of ketchup), but I've recently become severely lactose intolerant. Is there any particular type of oil that you would recommend to use instead of butter? I tried canola but it just didn't brown like butter.

I knew I was right to go to your blog first whenever I was looking for a recipe. I've been making hash browns for years for my kids and they were OK (ish). The moment I tried this recipe, what do you know, they were perfect! I used the same ingredients and even imitated every gesture of yours. You are a great teacher, it's in your blood, chef John, thank you!

I'm American and love brown sauce but it can be hard to find the the States. I find it in the International section of my megamart but it is expensive. I make it myself which is superior. Fresh ground spices, tamarind, molasses. Yum. From the recipe it is clear that this sauce comes straight out of the British Raj.

Clarified butter is great but if you don't want to use that rendered chicken fat (schmaltz), duck fat (the gold standard) or home rendered lard are all great. And they all have a healthier fat profile. For hash browns vegetable oil is a poor substitute unless you are vegan.

Now I knew about washing the starch off for fries but never knew about doing the hash browns that way. I figured it would make them not congeal properly. I need to give this a try.

Yeah, don't use vegetable oil. I just tried this with olive oil and it turned out floppy & greasy rather than crispy. It also took forever to get browned. I was just lazy and felt like skipping the step to make clarified butter. They still tasted great, but the texture was off.

If you're lactose intolerant and don't want to have butter in the house, you can still try to make this recipe. Look for a product from India called "Ghee." It's butter that is already clarified to remove the milk solids. When I bought some, it was sold in jars, unrefrigerated in the "Ethnic Foods," section of my grocery store.

A trick I use is to rinse the shredded potato in a salad spinner basket until it runs clear then take them for a quick spin. They come out nice and dry without a lot of squeezing, draining, or blotting.

Olive oil worked for me, but it did take a while.Also, Chef John, I definitely watched that video and thought, "1 potato per person is way too much."I'm cooking the second batch now.I apologize for doubting you.

I absolutely love your recipes and enjoy watching you cook them as well I think you should have your own show! cause I think the way you teach and talk to your audience is very charismatic and ingenious and fresh. Please continue

I buttered a non stick pan, but I did not microwave the butter. I was waiting for the potatoes to crisp at the bottom but a lot of smoke was coming out of the pan. I guess the butter had cooked out? I turned the potatoes over to prevent more burning, occasionally adding butter, oil or water. They cooked but never congealed. I couldn't get crispiness or uniformity, and they turned out charred and spicy.

Just made hash browns for the first time according to your methods and they turned out BEAUTIFULLY. Best hash browns I've ever had, so wonderfully flavourful and crispy! I've been watching your videos for a while now and never got around to making one of your recipes yet, but today I was craving something carbs-y and this sprang to mind. You are a genius Chef John, now I can't wait to try more of your wonderful recipes, especially seeing as your videos always put a smile on my face :)

Seems nobody noticed the scrapple on the other side of the eggs. Chef, if you haven't already, please make a video on scrapple and educate the masses. If folks get this excited over hash browns and eggs, getting the word out about scrapple could go viral. If there's enough demand, maybe someday scrapple will be something you can purchase in every town in America. Thanks.

I've always had trouble with this recipe and finally found a method that works. But it comes from another site! Fear not chef, I'm still ye faithful servant. Here's what I do...

The first thing is to use oil, and lots of it. Then preheat the oil on high. This is a must so stay by the pan and be smart. Lastly, use a pan with a wide surface area so the potato spreads out thin and cooks through.

Cook the first side for 3 minutes and it will have crisped and congealed. Turn the cake over and cook second side for two minutes. Voila! You're done! Beautiful and crispy. You don't even have to peel skin or remove the starch. The whole thing takes 8 minutes.

Hey! What's all this European stuff. My two grandsons eat ketchup with practically every dinner, I'm sorry to say. But for breakfast, I agree with a previous poster, it has to be HP Brown sauce. Nom nom!!

omg omg omg!!! never did this till this morning. I made these for breakfast,my wife liked them so much she was late for work!she couldn't stop eating them..THANK YOU Chef John you have once again made me a hero. your friend in Newfoundland Canada, willy D